dive

From Middle English diven, duven, from the merger of Old English dȳfan (“to dip, immerse”, transitive weak verb) (from Proto-Germanic *dūbijaną) and dūfan (“to duck, dive, sink, penetrate”, intransitive strong verb) (past participle ġedofen). Cognate with Icelandic dýfa (“to dip, dive”), Low German bedaven (“covered, covered with water”). See also deep, dip.

• IPA^(key): /daɪv/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -aɪv

dive (third-person singular simple present dives, present participle diving, simple past dived or (chiefly U.S. and Canada) dove, past participle dived or (chiefly U.S. and Canada, nonstandard) dove or (dialectal) doven)

1. (intransitive) To swim under water.
2. (intransitive) To jump into water head-first.
   • 1826, Richard Whately, Elements of Logic:

     It is not that pearls fetch a high price because men have dived for them.

3. (intransitive) To jump headfirst toward the ground or into another substance.

   to dive into home plate

4. (intransitive) To descend sharply or steeply.
   • 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 49:

     [the Hammersmith & City at Paddington]: There it dived underground, eventually enabling its train services to run over, and be entangled with, the easterly extensions of the Metropolitan and the District.

5. (intransitive) To lose altitude quickly by pointing downwards, as with a bird or aircraft.
6. (intransitive, especially with in) To undertake with enthusiasm.

   She dove right in and started making improvements.

7. (sports) To deliberately fall down after a challenge, imitating being fouled, in the hope of getting one's opponent penalised.
8. (transitive) To cause to descend, dunk; to plunge something into water.
   • 1594–1597, Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     To dive an infant either thrice or but once in Baptism

9. (transitive) To explore by diving; to plunge into.
   • 1668, John Denham, The Progress of Learning:

     The Curtii bravely dived the gulf of flame.

   • 1867, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “May-Day”, in May-Day and Other Pieces, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 20:

     The green lane is the school-boy's friend, / Low leaves his quarrel apprehend, / […] / The brimming brook invites a leap, / He dives the hollow, climbs the steep.

10. (intransitive, figuratively) To plunge or to go deeply into any subject, question, business, etc.; to penetrate; to explore.
    • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, 6th edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] J[ames] Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1727, →OCLC:

      dive into the Concerns of all about them

The past tense dove is found chiefly in North American English, where it is used alongside the regular (and earlier) dived, with regional variations; in British English dived is the standard past tense, dove existing only in some dialects. Some speakers express uncertainty about what the past participle should be;[1] dove is relatively rare as a past participle. (Compare Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary; The American Heritage Dictionary; The Cambridge Guide to English Usage)

dive (plural dives)

1. A jump or plunge into water.

   the dive of a hawk after prey

2. A headfirst jump toward the ground or into another substance.
   • 2016 August 16, Kate Samuelson, “Here Are Other Athletes Who Famously Won with a Dive”, in Time‎:

     The 24-year-old Brazilian hurdler Joao Vitor de Oliveira progressed to the Rio competition’s semi-finals by executing a Superman-style dive headfirst over the finishing line – beating South Africa’s Antonio Alkana by one hundredth of a second.

3. A downward swooping motion.
4. A swim under water.
5. A decline.
6. (slang) A seedy bar, nightclub, etc.
7. (aviation) Aerial descent with the nose pointed down.
8. (sports) A deliberate fall after a challenge.

From Italian dive; see diva.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdiːveɪ/

dive

1. plural of diva

dive (plural dives)

1. Obsolete form of daeva.

• Devi, I'd've, vide, vidê, vied

• IPA^(key): [ˈɟɪvɛ]

dive

1. vocative singular of div

• IPA^(key): /ˈdi.ve/
• Rhymes: -ive
• Hyphenation: dì‧ve

dive f

1. plural of diva

• devi, vedi, vide

dīve

1. vocative masculine singular of dīvus

dive

1. inflection of divar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative